Right now, some 250 miles above Earth, a six-member crew is aboard the International Space Station: two Americans, one Japanese astronaut and three Russian cosmonauts. Back here on ground, though, the countries haven't been playing quite as nicely. As a result of Russia's recent actions in the Ukraine, the U.S. will suspend some space-related contact with Russia (but not on the ISS).

For NASA employees, astronauts and space watchers, the tenuous relationship is potentially problematic. Russia is now the only option for American astronauts to travel to the ISS. Period.

“I think it’s clear that we would prefer to be able to have another option. I mean it’s not good to have one option to get people to space,” Mike Massimino, NASA astronaut and veteran of two space shuttle missions, said during “The Future of Space” panel on Tuesday at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in New York City.

Astronaut Mike Massimino talks about the future of manned spaceflight on April 22, 2014.

Image: Mashable / Will Fenstermaker

Panel moderator and public radio host Ira Flatow told the audience that the U.S. depends on Russia not only for transport to the ISS, but often for the rockets in our own spacecraft.

NASA engineer Bobak Ferdowsi, who became known as “Mohawk Guy” after the Mars Curiosity Landing (he still has the mohawk), also spoke on the panel. He didn't want to speak on behalf of NASA, but did mention a bright spot: “The good news is that we are working on those American rockets.”

"Mohawk Guy" NASA Engineer Bobak Ferdowsi said the end of the Shuttle program did not mean the end of manned space flight.

Image: Mashable / Will Fenstermaker

NASA is working alongside its commercial partners, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX. While the private company’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft have thus far been used to ferry cargo to the ISS (there’s one docked with the ISS right now), the long-term plan, as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability, is to make them viable alternatives for both commercial and government (read: astronaut) spaceflight.

Will Pomerantz, vice president of special projects at Virgin Galactic, who was also on the panel, noted that the U.S. has startlingly few options left. “I don’t anticipate NASA working with the Chinese space agency is going to happen any time soon,” he joked. Congress actually forbids NASA from working with the Chinese Space Agency. "While Russia is a great partner, I think is unfortunate, that we just don’t have the redundancy."

Virgin Galactic's Will Pomerantz says his company is almost ready to start taking passengers into space.

Image: Mashable / Will Fenstermaker

This is not the first time the U.S. found itself in a limiting situation for manned space flight. Massimino reminded the audience that during the shuttle disaster in 2003, five years after the ISS launched, the U.S. was "very fortunate to have the Russian Soyuz to take people up and down." But, he said, that was the only option — and still is right now.

What was unique about the shuttle, Massimino said, is that it ferried both people and cargo. The shuttles continued to fly until 2011, when NASA retired the fleet.

Massimino, who is currently on loan to teach at Columbia University, fully expects NASA to recover the ability to send people and cargo — perhaps simultaneously — back into space, both through private partnerships with companies like Space X and Virgin Galactic and via its own in-house projects.

There’s no doubt what NASA wants to do, Massimino said: To go beyond low earth orbit with the Orion spacecraft.

"We’re gonna achieve that, I would expect, relatively soon, in next couple of years with the Crew program," Massimino said.

Despite the terrestrial discord, Massimino, who assiduously avoided discussing the politics at play, described the cosmonauts he’s worked with as “good men and women.”

“At my level, working with those cosmonauts that we work with and the engineers we work with, these are top-notch good people, and we really have a very good working relationship," he added.

The current environment on the ISS — with three Russian cosmonauts, two Americans and one Japanese commander working well together — is a "good model to shoot for," according to Massimino. It’s unclear whether he was referring to space — or to the world as a whole.

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